ARTICLES ABOUT DRUG DEALERS BY DATE - PAGE 4

When an Easton drug dealer took the stand last month against a man accused of torturing a 3-year-old Wilson boy to death, the witness said he believed his testimony would help him with his own pending cases. It did, even better than Damion Moses had wished. On Friday, the 32-year-old heroin seller got two to four years in state prison on several drug possession and delivery charges. That's half the time he told attorneys for convicted child murderer Eugenio Torres he hoped to receive, and a fraction of what Moses could have gotten if he had taken his case to trial.

A Bethlehem drug dealer who said he shot up a house because he claimed someone inside threatened him will serve up to four years in state prison. Pedro Santiago-Espinoza, 22, admitted Wednesday to aggravated assault and a heroin delivery charge for a pair of cases brought against him on the same day last year. On Oct. 14, 2009, Santiago-Espinoza fired two to four shots at 1253 Pembroke Road in Bethlehem, causing Angel Figueroa and Figueroa's mother to dive for cover inside, police said.

Northampton County seized about $90,000 from drug profits in the last fiscal year — an average year in terms of forfeiture, District Attorney John Morganelli said Wednesday. The county, which also seized 14 vehicles and one real estate property, can use the money for police equipment, undercover purchases of controlled substances and specialized police training. Northampton also uses the money to pay the salary of an assistant district attorney who prosecutes drug cases.

A Philadelphia man on trial in the 2007 botched home invasion of a Bethlehem drug dealer was found guilty of felony murder Thursday, guaranteeing him a sentence of life in prison. Angel L. Echevarria, 39, was convicted of second-degree murder and at least two dozen other charges for the robbery of James Garcia that left one man dead and Garcia and his pit bull wounded. The verdict came after a four-day trial and more than four hours of jury deliberations. Echevarria's wife and sisters broke into tears as the jury foreman repeatedly said "guilty" and rarely "not guilty" to the many charges the defendant faced in the holdup gone wrong.

A jilted Bethlehem wife and her plotting boyfriend. Her drug dealer husband, headed to Las Vegas flush with money. A scheme to lighten his load that went bad. When armed men arrived at James Garcia's South Side home more than three years ago, he and a friend were partying with strippers by the pool. Gunfire soon erupted, leaving the friend dead, Garcia and his pit bull wounded, cash scattered throughout the property, and three frightened children upstairs. That's the picture that a Northampton County prosecutor presented to jurors Monday as the trial began for a Philadelphia man accused of participating in the July 26, 2007, botched home invasion on Wyandotte Street.

Before you talk tough about keeping criminals in prison for their maximum sentences, step right up and plop down your $1,038 share of what it would take to build enough prisons to do that. Hold that thought as we consider how much of the burden for housing criminals in Pennsylvania involves hordes of idiots, weaklings and thugs who harmed only themselves or other consenting adults. It has been widely reported that 80 percent of Americans in prison are there because of drugs or drug-related crimes — thefts, murders and other offenses perpetrated by wretches seeking money for drugs or protecting a drug market turf.

We are between a rock and a hard place when we don't have enough prisons to keep murderers locked up for their full sentences. We are forced to build more prisons, or maybe we should build tent prisons like they have in Texas. Maybe 10 years living in a tent in the Poconos would be a deterrent for these people not to commit more crimes when they do get out. We lost the war on drugs a long time ago, so why not legalize drugs. The state could sell drugs in state stores, which could produce revenue and jobs.

A Bethlehem drug dealer caught with heroin and a garage of marijuana will serve five to 10 years in state prison. Charles Nunn, 23, received the sentence Monday after earlier pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to deliver heroin under a plea bargain in which prosecutors dropped other drug and firearm charges. Police in February raided Nunn's 306 Hill St. home, finding 15 bundles of heroin and a large marijuana growing operation with $40,000 worth of plants.

After allegedly selling heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to an undercover Bethlehem police officer Wednesday, a man police labeled a "significant" drug dealer fled in his car and struck and injured an officer, according to officials. Police later found hundreds of packets of heroin with a street value of more than $15,000 and numerous weapons in the home of 21-year-old Jamond L. Warner of 1460 Jill St. Warner was arrested Wednesday night when he returned to his home. He is a "high- to mid-level" dealer in suburban Bethlehem who sold an estimated $20,000 worth of heroin each week in the city and surrounding area, Bethlehem police Lt. Mark DiLuzio said.